Magnetic carbon nanotubes camouflaged with cell membrane as a drug discovery platform for selective extraction of bioactive compounds from natural products
Title of Paper:
Magnetic carbon nanotubes camouflaged with cell membrane as a drug discovery platform for selective extraction of bioactive compounds from natural products
Summary:
The biomimetic functionalization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising for its application in solid phase
extraction because they can overcome current limitations of covalent functionalization and obtain desired
specific recognition ability. The present study aimed to develop a novel dual functionalization CNTs modified
with magnetic nanoparticles and high α1A-adrenergic receptor (α1A-AR) expression HEK 293 cell membrane. On
the basis of the specific interactions between drugs and receptors on cell membrane, high α1A-AR expression cell
membrane camouflaged magnetic CNTs (CMMCNTs) were employed as a drug discovery platform to screen
potential α1A-AR antagonists from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The resultant CMMCNTs had a rightside-
out membrane and desired magnetic property, enabling to rapidly target and separate the bioactive compounds
from complex samples. Furthermore, the CMMCNTs possessed high adsorption capacity, fast binding
kinetics, and satisfactory selectivity. As a result, two bioactive compounds as lappaconitine and benzoylmesaconine
were screened and identified in the actual application. Moreover, the lappaconitine was validated to have
favorable antagonism to α1A-AR through preliminary pharmacological assays. Hence, this successful application
of CMMCNTs showed significant advantages in drug discovery so as to drive the development of TCM. More
importantly, the cell membrane biomimetic modification could be widely used to improve the performance of
CNTs in various applications.
Co-author:
Qi Hu, Yusi Bu, Ruifang Ke, Ke Xu, Xiaoyu Xie*, Sicen Wang*
Papers
